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POWhy aren't more applications written in multiple languages?
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copied!<p>Even 2 decades ago, it was possible to call code written in one language to call code written in another; in school we called assembly graphics routines from within Ada code for one class assignment. Notable exceptions are running compiled code from within scripts or executing a system command from within compiled code; but rarely do we write a library in C++ to use in our Java app. When Java first appeared and it was still slow, there was the option of writing the main app in Java and moving the bottleneck code into some C/C++ dll to be called using JNI. </p> <p>So, after all these years, what keeps us from writing multi-language apps? The primary scenario I have in mind is when a language is considered a good choice if it weren't for some performance bottleneck (like in the earlly Java days) so it's written entirely in C instead using a mix of the two languages. </p> <p>I'm interested in this from an architecture perspective as well as language-design. Do you have any good examples, success stories, or quotes? </p> <p>[Edit] One of the best examples of this was the backlash against Java because of it's slow performance early on. Even though JIT compilers have addressed the issue, my question was always about writing software in a language that makes it easier to write, read, and maintain. If there is a bottleneck, write a routine in assembly or C just for the bottleneck. That way you should get the best of both worlds, at least theoretically. </p>

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